Billionaires and CEOs bet on San Francisco’s cheap real estate

By Biz Carson | Bloomberg

In San Francisco’s financial district, the One Montgomery building evokes the opulence of America’s turn of the 20th century gilded age. With its Tuscan columns, marble staircases and bronze doors, the Renaissance Revival landmark once housed Crocker Bank, named after one of the tycoons who built the western portion of America’s first transcontinental railroad.

These days, the property exemplifies the city’s shifting fortunes: Ghazi Shami, chief executive officer of the record label Empire...